(Source: cleveland.com) CLEVELAND, Ohio -- A Cleveland-area contractor who paid his employees criminally low wages while working on projects for the Cuyahoga Metropolitan Housing Authority was sentenced Tuesday to 21 months in federal prison. Marcus Butler, who operated of L & B Electric of Northeast Ohio, lied on forms between 2011 and 2013 and said he paid his employees $126,514.80 more than he actually had when doing subcontracting work…

(Source: cincinnati.com) A man was indicted in federal court Tuesday on allegations he defrauded the Department of Veteran Affairs more than $123,000 between April of 2015 and October of 2016, according to an affidavit filed in federal court. Shawn Oliger, 43, of Cincinnati, said he served in the Marine Corps from 1990 to 1993 and applied for disability compensation, medical care and housing, according to the affidavit filed in by Todd Springer…

(Source: nhregister.com) BRIDGEPORT >> A former West Haven Housing Authority employee has been ordered by a federal judge to pay more than $130,000 in restitution for his role in encouraging the organization to enter into contracts with close friends who owed him money. John Sandella, 54, of Orange, pleaded guilty in September to one count of receipt of compensation with the unlawful intent to defeat the purposes of the U.S. Department of…

BOSTON – A Boston Cab dispatcher and his wife were sentenced today in U.S. District Court in Boston in connection with arranging a sham marriage for an Ethiopian relative so he could obtain legal status in the United States. Girma Tilahun, 61, a dispatcher for EJT Management, Inc., which operates Boston Cab, and his wife, Wudnesh Wolde, 54, both of Cambridge, were sentenced by U.S. District Judge Denise J. Casper to two years of probation and…

BOSTON – A Milford woman pleaded guilty today in U.S. District Court in Boston in connection with embezzling over $70,000 in rent payments owed to the Framingham Housing Authority (FHA).     Rosa A. Famania, 33, pleaded guilty to one count of embezzling money from an agency receiving federal funds.  U.S. District Court Chief Judge Patti B. Saris scheduled sentencing for March 14, 2017. In February 2010, Famania began…

(Source: framinghamsource.com) BOSTON – A Milford woman pleaded guilty today in U.S. District Court in Boston in connection with embezzling over $70,000 in rent payments owed to the Framingham Housing Authority. Rosa A. Famania, 33, pleaded guilty to one count of embezzling money from an agency receiving federal funds. U.S. District Court Chief Judge Patti B. Saris scheduled sentencing for March 14, 2017. In February 2010, Famania began working…

(Source: omaha.com) A Section 8 landlord’s alleged bribery of Omaha Housing Authority employees was reported immediately, and no Housing Authority employees are accused of any wrongdoing, the prosecutor in the case said Friday. Jan Sharp, chief criminal prosecutor of the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Nebraska, said the Housing Authority cooperated fully with the investigation into the alleged bribery by longtime Omaha landlord Lafi Jafari and his…

(Source: rockislandtoday.com) The Rock Island Housing Authority has been asked to reimburse more than $600,000 to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), according a report from The Edgar County Watchdogs in Illinois Leaks. The housing authority did not comply with the HUD regulations regarding its Housing Choice Voucher and Family Self-Sufficiency programs. The U.S. Office of Inspector General (USOIG) released its…

(Source: valleycentral.com) The La Joya Housing Authority board suspended Executive Director J.J. Garza on Saturday afternoon -- and plans to terminate him. Faced with a federal investigation, the board voted to suspend Executive Director Juan Jose "J.J." Garza, 48, of La Joya without pay. San Antonio-based attorney Mark Anthony Sanchez Sr. advised the board to quickly schedule a follow-up meeting to terminate Garza. "You're beset with a series…

A four-count superseding indictment was unsealed today in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York charging Cornell Bozier with one count of conspiracy to commit honest services wire fraud and three substantive counts of federal program bribery.  From April 2011 to April 2013, Bozier served as the Chairman of the Board of Commissioners (the Board) at the Village of Hempstead Housing Authority (the VHHA). …

(Source: guampdn.com) A 51-year-old former public housing landlord signed a plea deal and is ready to admit guilt in a bribery scheme in which an ex-Guam Housing and Urban Renewal Authority employee accepted money from recipients of the federal Housing Choice Voucher, or Section 8, program. The ex-landlord, Albert Buendicho, was indicted in March, along with former GHURA housing specialist Antonia Mayo-San Nicolas, 55, and Section 8…

KANSAS CITY, Mo. – Tammy Dickinson, United States Attorney for the Western District of Missouri, announced that a former Kansas City, Mo., woman was convicted by a federal jury today of engaging in a fraud scheme in which she stole $440,000 in lottery winnings from her victim as part of a scheme that resulted in a total loss of more than $640,000. Freya Pearson, 43, of Georgia, formerly of Kansas City, was found guilty of all nine counts…

(Source: arkansasonline.com) Lionell S. Moss, the executive director of the Helena Housing Authority, was arrested Friday on federal charges accusing him of illegally receiving $57,907 by submitting false reimbursement requests and using an agency credit card for personal expenses. Moss, 58, appeared briefly late Friday afternoon in the Little Rock courtroom of U.S. Magistrate Judge Joe Volpe and pleaded innocent to three charges -- two…

(USAO ,NY) Preet Bharara, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, and Mark G. Peters, Commissioner of the New York City Department of Investigation (“DOI”), announced today the filing of criminal charges against six defendants for participating in long-running schemes to hide substantial assets and income obtained from significant business and real estate interests in order to attain government benefits designed for…

(Source: dnainfo.com) WILLIAMSBURG — Three Brooklyn couples, including a landlord with properties all over the borough, were arrested Tuesday on charges of defrauding the government of $1.3 million worth of benefits. Shlomo Kubitshuk, 38, and his wife Rachel, 39, Naftali, 40, and Hinda Englander, 41, and Leib, 39, and Devorah Teitelbaum, 36, were accused of lying about their income to the federal government as far back as 2001 in order to…

Deirdre M. Daly, United States Attorney for the District of Connecticut, announced that JOHN SANDELLA, 54, of Orange, pleaded guilty today before U.S. District Judge Stefan R. Underhill in Bridgeport to receiving unlawful compensation while serving as an employee of the West Haven Housing Authority. According to court documents and statements made in court, SANDELLA was employed as the Clerk of the Works for the West Haven Housing Authority (“…

(Source: Capital Gazette) A federal audit has found that due to poor record-keeping and improper spending, the Housing Authority of the City of Annapolis didn't always appropriately spend more than $400,000 in grants designed to help its residents improve their lives. The Office of Inspector General for the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development found the housing authority did not maintain documents to support the expenses of $401,859…

(USAO, MA) BOSTON – A real estate developer and a former City of Worcester housing official were charged in U.S. District Court in Worcester this week in connection with a $2.3 million fraud scheme relating to the redevelopment of a multi-family property in Worcester. James E. Levin, 57, of Natick, a real estate developer and attorney, and Jacklyn M. Sutcivni, 43, of Dracut, a former employee of the City of Worcester’s Housing Development…

(Source: WDSU-TV NBC) NEW ORLEANS —Dangerous and unsafe living conditions for the elderly and disabled in New Orleans are coming to light in a lengthy report at Satchmo Plaza in Central City. The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development issued multiple violations for an apartment complex for the elderly and disabled. The complex has dozens of units and  is operated by the Central City Housing Corp. They said one of the people on…

(Source: USAO, LA) LAFAYETTE, La. – United States Attorney Stephanie A. Finley announced today that the former executive director of the Morgan City Housing Authority and three former employees were sentenced for a conspiracy related to theft of half a million dollars. Charles E. Spann, 78, of Kingsport, Tenn., was sentenced to 36 months in prison, three years of supervised release and ordered to pay $111,657.47 restitution on one count of…